Passion 4 Him

by John MacArthur God became a man. That foundational gospel truth is pictured in every manger scene you’ll see around town this Christmas. Though the incarnation is culturally familiar, it’s utterly foreign to the unbelieving world. Unfortunately, a heart attitude of unbelief concerning Jesus’ identity has characterized the majority of men and women since the Fall. The Jews who opposed Christ vividly illustrated that attitude on more than one occasion ( John 5:18 ; 7:28–30 ; 10:30–39 ). But such hostility and lack of faith should not discourage us or deter us from embracing and defending the truth of Christ’s virgin birth. The apostle Paul reminds us, “For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar” ( Rom. 3:3–4 , 10:16 ; Isa. 53:1 ). The world’s opinion, popular as it might be, is rarely a reliable source of truth. Undoubtedly, therefore, the Holy Spirit acte...

We have thought about the phrase "Preach the gospel, and when necessary, use words" a few different times since the Lord opened our eyes to the Biblical Gospel. Is that really a true statement? Can we preach a complete gospel only by living our lives? Our thinking came to an end a while ago through the book Christless Christianity. We finally found the answer, and it was just as we thought. Just another false way of thinking gone popular in today's "relevant" church culture. Below is from the book, and we think it's extremely well said: "We do not preach ourselves but Christ. God's law tells us what God approves-what His heart delights in. He does not ask us to be spontaneous, creative, or self-willed but to do the things that He regards as righteous, holy, true, and good. What a relief it is when we are liberated from thinking that we are called to be the gospel! Now we can simply receive it and draw upon it daily for the confidenc...

College education in America is a bad joke.  Instead of preparing the next generation of leaders for the jobs of tomorrow, the college education "industry" has become a giant money making scam.  We constantly preach to our high school students that they "need" to go to college and we tell them to not even worry about how much it is going to cost because a college education is "always" worth the money.  Then we lend them outrageous amounts of money so that they can pay the gigantic bills for the "education" that they are receiving.  But the truth is that the quality of education at America's colleges and universities is absolutely abysmal these days.  I spent 8 years at U.S. universities, and most of the courses that I took could have been passed by the family dog.  Sadly, once our young people graduate they quickly discover that there are way too many college graduates and not nearly enough good jobs.  Today, we have millions up...

One of the greatest dangers to Christianity today is the deliberate suppression of biblical truth for the sake of unity. The danger intensifies as we see many highly visible and influential Christians are jumping on the Vatican's ecumenical bandwagon. Instead of warning believers that this false unity is the emergence of the "last days" apostate church, evangelicals are embracing and applauding those who are engineering it. Instead of obeying biblical exhortations and examples to: keep the gospel pure, we are tolerating those who preach another gospel (Gal. 1:6-9) be sanctified by the truth, they are joining hands with unbelievers (John 17:17). hate everything false, they are tolerating doctrines of demons and counterfeit gospels (Psalm 119:104, 128). expose and name the agents of compromise, they are enduring them (Eph. 5:11, 2 Tim. 1-4). The Church Must Be Warned Amazingly, we seldom hear warnings against apostasy from our pulpits. Ra...

Question: "What should parents tell their children about Santa Claus?" Answer: Although Santa Claus is a mythical figure, his creation is based in part on a great Christian man named Saint Nicholas of Myra, who lived in the 4th century. Nicholas was born to Christian parents who left him an inheritance when they died, which he distributed to the poor. He became a priest at a young age and was well-known for his compassion and generosity. He had a reputation for giving gifts anonymously, and he would throw bags of money into people's homes (and sometimes down their chimneys) under the cover of night to avoid being spotted. Nicholas passed away on December 6 sometime around the 340s or 350s AD, and the day of his death became an annual feast in which children would put out food for Nicholas and straw for his donkey. It was said that the saint would come down from heaven during the night and replace the offerings with toys and treats—but only for the good boy...

Who was that child in the manger? God. We see that clearly now. But why would God become a man, be born in such a lowly manner, and let men treat Him the way they did? Why would Jesus, while existing "before all things" ( Colossians 1:17 ) and holding "first place in everything" (v. 18), agree to come to earth as a baby, suffer the abuse He suffered, and die such a painful death? The apostle Paul is clear: "It was the Father's good pleasure ... through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross" (vv. 19-20). He did it to make peace between God and man. God is justifiably angry at humanity's sin. All of us have sinned--and done so repeatedly. Yet He loves sinners enough that He gave His own Son to live on earth, die on a cross, and bear sin in His own body, suffering the full weight of God's wrath--wrath deserved by sinners. He paid the penalty to restore peace between God and sinners...

The story of the first Christmas is so beloved that singers and storytellers across the centuries have embellished and elaborated and mythologized the story in celebration. However, most people now don't know which details are biblical and which are fabricated. People usually imagine the manger scene with snow, singing angels, many worshipers, and a little drummer boy. None of that is found in the biblical account. Christmas has become the product of an odd mixture of pagan ideas, superstition, fanciful legends, and plain ignorance. Add to that the commercialization of Christmas by marketers and the politicization of Christmas in the culture wars, and you're left with one big mess. Let's try to sort it out. The place to begin is in God's Word, the Bible. Here we find not only the source of the original account of Christmas, but also God's commentary on it. We can't know Jesus if we don't understand He is real. The story of His birth is no alle...